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EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account

EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) funding provides support for activities that will help to accelerate the impact from past, current or future research that falls within the EPSRC remit.

In recognition of the often long lead time between research ‘discovery’ (research outcomes) and related impacts, the EPSRC has awarded Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) grants to 33 universities since 2012, including the University of Oxford. The IAA provides support for activities that will reduce that lead time, and help to accelerate the impact (beyond academia) from past, current or future research that falls within the EPSRC remit. The latest tranche of funding runs from 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2020 and is worth £5.2m, with part of the total being allocated to strategic initiatives and part for small grants to Oxford researchers.

The Oxford IAA provides three main types of small grant support:

Partnerships: grants to accelerate impact through increased engagement of Oxford researchers with end-users of the research in non-academic organisations. We are particularly keen to encourage Early Career Researchers (this includes doctoral students and post-doctoral researchers at any stage of their career) to apply for this scheme.

Impact workshops: grants to support the coordination and delivery of impact-focussed workshops and meetings.

Technology fund:Technology Development Grants to develop new technologies to the point where they are suitable for follow on support from other sources (e.g. Oxford University Innovation (OUI) translational funding) or for commercial exploitation (e.g. capital investment for spinning out, licensing deals etc.), or Impact Delivery Grants to transfer knowledge, whose take-up will provide benefits to users but will not necessarily generate a financial return to the University (e.g. applications for NHS and other public bodies, NGOs, etc.).

Please note that for the January/February 2019 call, it is expected that Partnerships and Technology Fund projects will cost no more than £50k per project, and will start no later than 31 May 2019. Projects requesting more than £50k must include a clear explanation in the justification of resources section of the application.

For further information, please refer to the guidance document, which has now been updated (January 2019).

Call open for EPSRC IAA OXRSE – Free IMPACT SOFTWARE PROJECT SUPPORT

Academics can apply for (i) Free or (ii) Paid OxRSE support at any time– the call is open on a rolling basis.

(i) EPSRC IAA-funded free support is exclusively for developing OxRSE Impact Software. Groups whose software development needs fall under the remit of the EPSRC IAA can access OxRSE support directly and without charge, and will need to submit theEPSRC IAA OxRSE Application Formto ascertain this. Email inquiries are throughepsrciaa@mpls.ox.ac.ukand rse@cs.ox.ac.uk. EPSRC IAA support ends on 31 March 2020.

Oxford university staff are eligible to apply for free EPSRC IAA OxRSE support if:

the support is for impact software being developed to generate social or economic impact.

For those outside the EPSRC IAA remit direct support will be costed through a Service Research Facility mechanism so that it can be paid for from existing research funding, or costed onto future grant applications.

(ii) The OxRSE group also aims to support all aspects of software development for research applications across the Collegiate University. and to provide (free) training and consultation to research groups who wish to improve their software development practices.

Please get in touch with OxRSE if you are interested in:

▪ Hiring a software developer for an existing project▪ Costing software developer time onto a new grant proposal▪ (Free) Consultation/training on research software design or software engineering best practices

EPSRC IAA Doctoral Impact Scheme

The EPSRC IAA Doctoral Impact Scheme aims to support and encourage new DPhil graduates to maximise the impact of their research beyond academia through engagement with non-academic partners in industry, healthcare, governmental agencies, local and regional government and other external organisations. It is expected that requested costs for Doctoral Impact projects will not exceed £30k.

Please note that this scheme cannot fund additional research. EPSRC-funded DPhil students who are interested in follow-on funding to support academic impact should refer to the EPSRC Doctoral Prize scheme.

Pilot call: SE2020 Translational Fund for Social Impact

The Pilot call for SE2020 has closed. Social impact projects should apply for IAA small grant support (see above).

How to apply

Applicants should read the guidance for the relevant scheme thoroughly prior to submitting an application.

Applications for EPSRC IAA funding should be made through the online Internal Research Awards Management System (IRAMS) which can be accessed at https://irams.ox.ac.uk/, using your Single Sign-On (SSO) details. Once you are logged in, please choose the correct scheme from the list to start your application. If required, IRAMS guidance in the form of quick reference guide (QRG) documents for applicants, departmental approvers and administrators can be found on the Research Support pages.

Please note that some departments may have set an earlier internal deadline, so please check with your local research support team and prepare your application well in advance of the date advertised above. Applications must be reviewed online by departmental approvers and, where approved, submitted for review by the assessment panel before the deadline.

If you have a potentially impactful project that falls within EPSRC research areas but does not fit with the IAA Technology Fund or Partnerships scheme, please speak to your department’s Research Facilitator in the first instance.

Dates for EPSRC IAA funding calls:

The following EPSRC IAA calls have now closed: Technology Fund, Partnerships Fund and Doctoral Impact Fund. Funding is available to support Impact Workshops. Further information, including updated guidance is available.